Indeed. Looking at the whole project there is work going on in multiple locations which is encouraging.Great video!
Those of us who have found the glacial speed of progress on the short sections being electrified desperately frustrating can’t fail to be impressed by the scale and urgency of all that’s going on here
I agree. Open railway map dot org has it as dotted line so sort of in progress.
Yeah, but that's just how somebody characterised the line in openstreetmap. It's easily fixed.
It does keep the contractors and suppliers ticking over, similarly with Lostock-Wigan.
Have you taken account of the two miles already wired across Leeds?
www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk
If you want a good vantage point for photos of the station during the work, use the public footpath on top of the retaining wall above the compound.
That would be the case if the staff can flit between different projects but if they can't there is lot of unproductive time to be paid for. Then there is the overheads (no pun intended) of the project and engineering team. Of course NR will never reveal the cost for any of these works but the fact the whole TRU project is being quoted at 11B speaks volume that efficient delivery isn't a key output.
As a publicly funded organisation they should be transparent and they should be efficient.
The rail industry has long said that a rolling programme of electrification is the single thing which will most bring the cost down, something the current government has singularly failed to enable. The approaching hiatus in the MML programme being a classic example.
The odd thing is, when road projects, or hospital projects etc go spectacularly over budget, does the govt turn round and say, “right that’s it, no more will be built for the next decade”?
Yes they do. Hence we have very few new hospitals. The Carillion mess at Liverpool Royal as an example or damage that has been done.
How can a single platform alone cost £24 Million? At best, it's probably going to be nowhere near £1 Million. Nevermind 24 (Probably a few Hundred Thousand at best).
Please do give us a breakdown of you 6-figure costs. Time & Materials at the appropriate rates, including all costs of design, permission, access to the railway and so forth.
They do go wildly overbudget, but road projects are undertaken for multiple clients - local authorities, regional bodies, as well the national bodies. So even if National Highways cuts back on schemes or progammes - and there are plenty of examples of that - there are plenty of local bypasses or spine roads through business parks or whatever to keep the road building industry going.
Simple: it's not a just a single platform. It's one completely new platform, one platform reconstruction, a complete replacement of the track, and I believe replacement of the OLE.
This should be a straightforward scheme the platform is going on the retail park side so much of the low level construction could be delivered without possessions which wont cost more than a few million. What piles on the cost with projects like this is what they do with the signalling. Im surmising its a route relay interlocking but don't know so if it is that means some SSI type replacement so thats 5m straight away. Depending on the length of the platform it could be one new S&C lead 2m but if the Up/Down crossovers need moving back you could easily add another 4m. Then you need new gantries for the OLE a few more million. Im sure the station would need some modification so couple more million. Then there is need to acquire land apparently from the retail park could easily be a few million. Then you have project management and design cost. Finally these projects also have to account for Sch4 compensation might not be a primary route but it all adds up. Then the cherry on the cake with any NR project is something like 30% contingency allowance so there's no embarrassment that we saw on the likes of GWEP.
Are we really saying these costs as itemised are fine, shouldn’t be challenged as too high?
That would be for new crossovers
Who are we to challenge? Unless you have some particular engineering insight, on what basis will you challenge it, other than "it seems a lot to me".
